Chef Tom Aikens likes to leave his work behind him, but he can’t sit still on a beach, he tells Caroline Shearing.

I travel quite a lot for both work and pleasure. My business partners are Turkish, so I go to Istanbul fairly regularly. It’s an amazing city that reminds me of London or New York because it’s very cosmopolitan and has great food and lots of historic things to see.

Other than that I probably travel at least once a month for work or weekends away with my family. If I’m going on holiday I tend to look for some long-haul winter sun around Christmas and I also try and get away at Easter. Summer holidays are usually spent in France, Spain or Italy.

Most memorable holiday meal?

I went to Ibiza in the summer with my family and my identical twin brother and his family. Ibiza obviously has a wild side, but it also has a very chilled and relaxed side, and we opted for the latter at a large house with a pool in Es Cubells.

There are some excellent markets on Ibiza and the fish there is exceptionally fresh, so we had a lot of barbecues. However, we also ate out a couple of times and on one of those occasions we went to El Bigote, which is a famous fish restaurant in the north of the island. Their speciality is a Spanish version of bouillabaisse and they cook it in a huge cast iron pan over an open fire and after they’ve served it, they then use the stock to make a wonderfully soupy risotto. They do two sittings for lunch and there’s no booking, so you have to drive there on the day in the hope of getting a table.

Does a choice of restaurants dictate your holiday destination?

Not necessarily, because these days you can be guaranteed good food pretty much wherever you go. In terms of research trips, I’d like to go to Argentina soon because I’ve never been and their beef has a very good reputation.

My chef friend Agnar Sverrisson, who runs Texture in London, has got me excited about Icelandic cuisine. I’d also love to go to Tokyo to cook with some of the sushi chefs there. They’re incredibly masterful and technical, and they have a mentality that is very spiritual in terms of their food. I’d certainly have a go at handling fugu, which is lethal if it’s not prepared properly, but I don’t think I’d be brave enough to eat it.

Favourite restaurants closer to home?

Café Colbert on London’s Sloane Square is not far from where I live and work and it’s very relaxed and perfect for families and large groups. I lived in Paris for a while and want to go back soon to eat at Alain Passard’s restaurant L’Arpège. I haven’t eaten there in a while but my chef friends who have been recently say it’s still an amazing culinary experience.

What do you need for a perfect holiday?

I can’t just lie on a beach for two weeks, so I need a range of activities to keep me busy. The thing I liked about Ibiza was there were lots of shops and nice beaches but I could also just hang out by the pool. I also do quite a lot of running and the terrain around Es Cubells is great for that. Culture is also usually on the list of things to do, so I might go to a museum or something.

Most adventurous travel experience?

I travelled to Morocco in 2010 to take part in the Marathon des Sables, which involved running six marathons in five days across the Sahara desert. We ran from 9am until 2pm and the heat was insane. We lived on two packets of freeze-dried food a day and there was anything from chicken korma to shepherd’s pie to beef bourguignon on offer. The food was actually quite nice, but I found myself gagging for fruit and sugar. It’s the remotest place I’ve ever been and there were times when I was running that I found myself completely alone, which was pretty daunting.

Favourite hotel?

I stayed at Claridge’s recently and I’d forgotten what a truly great London hotel it is. I hadn’t been for ages but it was Justine’s [my partner] birthday and I thought it would be quite a nice treat and very spoiling to stay there. The service is impeccable and you feel incredibly well looked after. They also have a lovely spa. I always have a sports massage because I really like the pain. I have this thing that if it doesn’t hurt, it’s not working. I also go into a hysterical laughing fit when it starts to hurt, which is a bit weird, I know.

Worst holiday?

A family holiday in my grandfather’s static caravan when I was about nine years old was pretty horrific. It was on this really terrible site on the Norfolk coast and the caravan was old and damp. I just remember me and my brother sat around a table in the caravan for a week moaning and whining because the weather was so horrendous, while the adults played cards and drank tea huddled around a calor gas heater. After that we went to France for our holidays.

Worst experience on holiday?

I was in a gym in St Lucia when about 30kg of weights came down bang in the middle of two of my fingers. There was blood everywhere and a gaping hole in my hand. I was rushed to hospital and the doctor was very sweet, but it was obvious he was quite junior. He had to do an internal stitch and a further 18 stitches externally. I was lucky not to have my fingers sliced off.

Favourite airline?

Qatar Airways. All of their aircraft are pretty new and I’ve travelled on them a couple of times and found the service and food to be exceptional. An airline that I’ll never fly with again, though, is Ryanair. They cram you into the smallest seats known to man and treat you like a herd of goats. The whole experience is just completely uncivilised.

Best piece of travel advice?

I always research restaurants and markets on the internet before I go and I usually ask for recommendations on Twitter.

What do you hate about holidays?

Travelling home.

Where next?

I’m going to Mauritius at Easter for a series of cooking events. I haven’t been to Mauritius before but I’ve heard it has great vanilla and spice markets. I also plan to do some scuba diving and learn to kite-surf.

Justine loves horse riding, so I’d also love to do a trekking holiday at some point. Argentina is a great destination for horseback trekking and I could also play some polo there. I think trekking from camp to camp would be a great way of seeing the country. It wouldn’t have to be particularly luxurious, but I would expect a reasonable level of comfort.

Tom Aikens will be hosting a series of gourmet cooking master classes at the Royal Palm in Mauritius from March 25-27. For more information and to book, contact Beachcomber Tours (01483 445685; beachcombertours.co.uk).